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| Image credit: Proactiveinvestors |
After West Africa and Middle East, pundits have wondered whether East Africa is the next oil hotspot following recent oil reserve discoveries in Kenya and Uganda, public optimism for potential fossil fuel in Rwanda raised a notch higher after this discoveries.
Oil exploration began in Rwanda in 2010, Rwanda may have to wait a little longer before it can strike oil, let alone benefit from the large foreign exchange inflows that come with it, as its neighboring country Uganda began exploring oil as early as 1920s, but it was not until 2006 before the first oil discovery was made in Albertine Graben, a region on the Uganda-DRC border, Kenya however drilled 35 dry wells over a period of 30 years before finally striking oil deposits in march this year, having started since 1950s.
Despite serious technological advancement in oil exploration, Rwanda still has a long way to go before any potential breakthrough, exploration began when government entered into an agreement with Vanoil Energy, a Canadian firm, to begin works in Lake Kivu, along Rwanda-DRC border, which also falls in the Albertine Graben.
The Rwanda's Minister of Natural Resources, Stanislas kamanzi, said the country is still far from finding oil, but the exploration has been off to a good start and so far results from analyses have encouraged Vanoil to continue their work.
A sedimentary basin has been discovered under lake Kivu with thickness of up to 3.5 kilometres, analyses is still ongoing to ascertain whether the structure of the basin is capable of holding oil, using the data goten from the 2D seismic technology.
Rwanda was motivated to begin its own oil search, given that it has the same geological structure with Kenya and Uganda with a Great Rift Valley Basin where oil were found, patience however will have to be exercised in this case of prospecting.
(Edited by: Blueblock)
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